"Where were you?" Drew asked Clarissa as he met her at school following a date they'd set at the skinny-dipping pond that she'd skipped. "Do you know how stupid I felt being naked in that pond all by myself? It was dark and cold and I just…why?"
"I have a very good reason," Clarissa told him. "I couldn't get out of the house. My parents kept me otherwise occupied."
"With what?" Drew asked. "What could possibly have been so important that you skipped skinny-dipping night?" He shouted this last part very loudly and it caused some people walking by to stare at them.
"My…my parents picked out a fiancé for me," Clarissa told him quietly. "Even after what happened with Blake. Or maybe even because of what happened to Blake. He still hasn't come back yet."
"Well, do you want to marry the man?" Drew asked.
"No," Clarissa said immediately. "Definitely not. But I'll have to. Oh, god, this is terrible!"
"What if you can't marry him?" Drew asked. "What if it would be bigamy if you married him because you'd already married someone else?"
Clarissa's eyes widened. "You mean…?"
"This wasn't how I was hoping to do it," Drew told her as he got on one knee. "But, Clarissa Shaw, will you marry me?"
"Oh, my god," Clarissa put a hand to her chest and looked around as people stared. "I would love to marry you. Do you have a ring?"
He took her hand and he brought her to his locker where he opened the door and then after moving some stuff aside, pulled out a small safe, quickly undid it, and pulled out a small black box with a diamond ring in it. "Is this good enough?" he asked. "I mean, you're rich, so you've probably seen better, but…"
"No!" Jill gasped. "I love it!" She gave a little jump as he slipped it on her finger. "Can I ask how you got the money for it? Or is that tacky?"
"No, I suppose it wouldn't hurt for you to know where it came from," Drew replied. "As soon as I met you, I talked to my father about finding a source of income so I could buy things like rings and good furniture, and he directed me to a job after school at one of his companies and I've made money that way. That's how I got the ring. And Dad chipped in a little too. I hope that doesn't matter?"
"Of course it doesn't matter!" Clarissa replied and hugged him. "I'm just shocked beyond belief that from the first day you met me, you plotted with your father to get me a ring. You must really know what you want."
"Yeah," Drew replied and kissed her as he pulled her close. "I do know what I want, and when I find it, I don't let it go, no matter what obstacles are standing in my way."
"You mean like my parents?" Clarissa clarified.
"Yes," Drew nodded and smelled her hair. "Exactly like your parents."
"What are you doing?" Christian asked as he came up behind Jill while she was studying.
"I'm doing schoolwork," Jill explained. "Just because I've been kidnapped, it's not an excuse for me to neglect my education."
"How long will you be doing that?" Christian asked.
"Until I've felt like I've learned something," Jill explained. "Now, will you please go away so I can concentrate?"
"How long will you be studying?" Christian asked again and blew in Jill's ear. "Cause I have needs."
"Of course you have needs," Jill told him. "But I can't be at your beck and call every minute. I need to have some time for myself."
Christian pouted. "I don't like you having fun without me," he protested.
"Learning stuff isn't fun!" Jill exclaimed.
Christian turned her chair around and grinned at her. "What if I was your teacher and you're the bad student who's failing her lessons? Then would it be more fun?"
Jill cocked her head. "Maybe," she answered and let him push her back over her books as he unzipped his pants and grinned as he looked down at her.
"If this is what I have to do to pass my class, I want you to know that I'm totally okay with that," Jill said and giggled. "Does this guarantee that I'll pass?"
Christian kissed her. "The more meetings we have like this, the higher your grade with be!"
Jill pushed all the stuff off the desk to give Christian more space and then pulled her up so she could wrap his arms around him and he could slip inside her, then when he was buried in deep, he lay her back on the desk and after putting a hand around her throat and lightly choking her, he began pushing into her over and over again.
"Oh!" She cried. "Oh, yes!" She reached her arms behind her and stretched out, making her feel as if he were filling her more completely. He then leaned forward and ripped her blouse open, sending buttons flying everywhere and then leaning down to gently suck on her nipples and massage her breasts. "This is good! This is a much more interesting lesson than what I'm learning before. But like you say, I'm gonna need a lot of tutoring."
Christian paused and said, "You know that eventually you'll have to show me what you learned, right?"
"Oh, I would love to," Jill smiled as he pushed into her again. "It would be my pleasure!"
When she was finally panting from exhaustion and clutching Christian as he held on to her so she wouldn't fall off the desk, she said, "I think…I think I should go back to studying now."
"Oh, fine," Christian sighed and carried her back to the chair, handing her the panties she'd thrown on the floor and zapping all her books and papers back on the desk. "I'm only giving you this break so I can catch my breath, though. Let me know when you're done." He paused. "Oh, and I'm gonna get myself something to eat. You want something?"
"Yes, I need to eat," Jill nodded. "But I'll get it myself. I really don't think I can be around you anymore. You're a terrible influence."
"Am I?" Christian smiled and ran a hand through her hair. "That's surprising. I think I behaved myself pretty well."
"I'm serious this time," Jill told him firmly. "Let me study for an hour and then I'll pay attention to you again."
"Do you swear?" Christian asked.
"Yes," Jill nodded, grabbing his face and giving him a kiss. "I do." Then she came around and gave him a spank. "Now get moving."
"Oh, all right," Christian told her as she pushed him out the door. "But just remember that I like it rough. This isn't exactly a turn-off for me."
"Yeah, I know," Jill replied before she shut the door and went back to her books. "Believe me, I get it."
"Thanks so much for agreeing to come with us and be part of our special day," Drew told Percy and Stephanie as they and Clarissa headed toward Vegas over lunch. "It really means a lot."
"Of course," Percy told him. "Like I would miss my best friend getting married."
"Do Mom and Dad know you're doing this?" Stephanie asked her brother. "Do you think you should have said something to them?"
"No," Drew shook his head. "Because Dad would just try and stop me and you know how stressed Mom's been about her possible impending doom. This would just add more problems. It'll be better to tell them after."
"Do you think they'll hate me for marrying you?" Clarissa questioned.
"No," Drew replied. "I have a feeling that your parents will hate me more as a son-in-law than my parents will hate you as a daughter-in-law."
"Is it really that bad?" Stephanie asked of Clarissa.
"Well, considering that they just picked a guy out for me to marry, yes," Clarissa told her. "But I don't care how angry they are if it means I get to marry the guy I want."
When they got stuck in a traffic jam, Clarissa got impatient and just zapped them to Vegas, where they parked outside of a chapel, grabbed each other's hands, and went inside, pausing just inside the door as Clarissa gave Drew a smile. "I can't believe we're really gonna do this. It's insane!"
"Do you not want to?" Drew asked, not picking up on the fact that she was excited. "Cause we can leave right now and do it later if you're not ready."
"No, I want to do it now!" Clarissa cried and then turned to look at her future sister-in-law and friend. "And no one else objects, right? Everyone is gonna hold their peace?"
"Yes," Percy and Stephanie both assured her at the same time.
"Good luck! Go get your man!" Stephanie added, thinking that she was going to have to call her father as soon as this was all over cause the longer they waited, the more shocked he would be, and that would not lend itself to a happy wedding day for her brother.
When they were called, Drew and Clarissa went up to the front of the chapel with Stephanie and Percy standing next to them. Because the idea had come to them so quickly, they went with traditional vows instead of ones they made themselves, but that didn't make it any less romantic.
After the vows, the organ music swelled and Clarissa and Drew clutched one another close and kissed over and over, only pausing so that they could all sign the marriage license.
"Well, isn't this nice?" Stephanie told Percy. "So happy. So wonderful."
"Yeah," Percy put his arm around her. "It is." Then he saw the look on her face. "What's the matter?"
"Now I have the unenviable task of calling my parents and telling them what happened," Stephanie replied. "I mean, rightfully Drew should be doing this, but it's his wedding day and I don't want to bum him out, so I'll pick up the slack just this once."
"You want me to stand behind you and offer moral support?" Percy offered.
"Okay," Stephanie smiled, her dark eyes bright. "Thanks." She went a distance away from her brother and his new wife, took a deep breath, and then semi-chickened out and called her mother's phone instead, thinking that would be better because if anyone could keep her father on an even keel, it was her mother. But unfortunately, the person who answered the call was her father.
"Hello?"
"Dad, what are you doing with Mom's phone?" Stephanie asked. "I did call Mom's phone, right?"
"Yes, but she stepped out to go to the bathroom," Elijah replied. "What's going on? Is there some sort of emergency? Why are you calling? Can't you just come to my classroom and tell me?"
"Well, that's the thing," Stephanie told him. "We're not at school; we're in Vegas. Drew, Clarissa, Percy, and I are in Vegas."
"And just why is that?" Elijah demanded. She could hear that he was trying so hard to keep his voice calm, but struggling.
"Drew and Clarissa wanted to get married so she wouldn't have to marry someone else," Stephanie explained. "I know we should have told you, but we only had so much time!"
Then she heard a click, a clatter, and a thump on the other end of the line. "Daddy?" She yelled. "Daddy, are you okay?"
She shouted into the phone until her mother picked it up a few minutes later. "My god," Selina said. "Stephanie Isabelle, what have you done to your father? He was passed out cold when I found him and when I woke him up, he was muttering something about betrayal."
"Drew and Clarissa decided they wanted to get married in Vegas today so she could escape an arranged marriage," Stephanie explained. "Percy and I went as their witnesses. I know we should have said something first, or picked a day to do it that didn't involve skipping school, and we're sorry, but the situation seemed urgent. You understand, right?"
"Yeah," Selina nodded, sighing deeply. "I do." Her mind then began to wander as she remembered exactly why that was…
"All right," she said to Amelia after watching Damon's carriage pull away and head for home. "Go ahead, Mother. Be honest. Why are you so calm about my engagement to Damon? I thought you'd be upset about it."
"Why should I be upset?" Amelia asked. "The boy just announced that he's going to fight the Yankees. He'll most likely die on the battlefield. So what good would it do me to complain about it now? It won't last very long. Then we can move on with our lives and match you to someone more suitable. Like that charming Ethan Fell, for instance." She smiled with satisfaction, turning to go back to her sewing. She obviously wanted the matter to be considered closed, but Selina wasn't ready for that yet.
"And there's the reason you're being so good about this!" She cried. "Cause you know that you just have to humor me until Damon's dead and then you can do whatever you want with my life."
"I'm only thinking of you," Amelia told her. "When I was your age, I was upset with my parents making me marry your father because I loved your uncle more, but in the end, I saw that they were right." She scoffed. "What sort of future would I have had with a rascal like your uncle, anyway? It was fortunate that he married your Aunt Abigail and then died before I did something foolish."
Selina was about to spit out an angry reply, but paused as she studied her mother's face. This was one of the occasions where although Amelia would spout disdain for her past and proclaim how right her parents had been when they had arranged her marriage, if you looked into her eyes, you would see emotion that would contradict that: sadness, loss, uncertainty. Thinking about what might have been if Uncle Andrew hadn't been shot playing poker that fateful day eight years ago. Selina had learned long ago not to acknowledge that her mother had those emotions out loud or make her talk about them because then Amelia would just deny them or stop showing them all together, and she already had enough problems with her feelings as it was without getting rid of the few she still showed. So instead of being angry, she just inclined her head a little and said in a quiet voice, "Yes, Mother. That…that's very lucky."
"Why don't you go change for lunch?" Amelia suggested, looking at the clock. "Ethan and his parents will be here soon. With Damon's news, I completely lost track of the time."
"All right," Selina told her and went to dress while stroking the silver locket Damon had given her as an engagement token and telling herself that since she had that, it wouldn't be difficult to get through a lunch with the Fells and their insipid son. It wouldn't be hard at all.
"Mom?" The voice cried into the phone, pulling Selina out of 1864 and back into the present. "Mom, are you there? Did you hang up?"
"No, sorry," Selina quickly apologized. "I just…I was thinking about the past. Sorry, Stephanie."
"Is Daddy gonna be okay?" Stephanie wanted to know. "I heard a thump."
Selina looked at Elijah, who was sitting very still in his desk chair and glaring at his 'World's Best Husband' coffee mug as if it had deeply offended him. "Your news made him faint, but he's awake now. And you best be heading home as soon as you can so we can talk about this, all right?"
"What's there to talk about?" Stephanie asked. "It's already done."
"Just come home soon," Selina urged. "Please?"
"All right," Stephanie promised. "We'll be back before the end of the school day."
"Good," Selina told her. "See you then." She ended the call and said, "Well, how about that?"
"I can't believe our son would get married and not tell us first," Elijah huffed.
"Well, they had a good reason," Selina told him. "Arranged marriages are not pleasant."
"I understand that, but it's still not an excuse to go gallivanting off in the middle of a school day without saying a word to anyone," Elijah pointed out.
"Well, Stephanie promised they'd be home soon, and we can talk about it tonight," Selina assured her husband as she played with his hair. "I know you're mad, but…be nice, okay? When you think about everything else that's going on, this is not the worst thing that could happen. In fact, you could call it a delightful diversion if you wanted."
"Maybe," Elijah conceded. "But they still lied."
"They didn't lie, they withheld information," Selina corrected. "That's different."
"I don't care what it is," Elijah thundered. "We're having a long family talk when we get home."
"I can't wait for that," Selina replied. "Sounds like lots of fun. I'll even bring cake. We can have cake while you berate them all for being irresponsible, can't we?"
"I suppose," Elijah sighed. "Not that it would stop you if I told you anything else."
"You're right," Selina kissed him and gave him a shoulder massage. "Now just try and relax and put your mind on something else until school is over, okay? You can do it!"
"All right," Elijah sighed. "It'll be difficult, but I guess I can do it."
"Good," Selina smiled and made her way to his classroom door. "That's what I want to hear."
